Pages

Sunday, 6 May 2012

The Pearl by John Steinbeck

The Pearl is a retelling of an old folktale which has a
strong message about the corruption and evil that springs from wealth and
power.

Kino is a poor fisherman with a young family who finds an
enormous pearl. He dreams of the many ways he can spend his newfound wealth.
Soon his community’s curiosity and good will turn to envy and spite. They try
to cheat Kino and when that doesn’t work they resort to violence in an attempt
to take the pearl for themselves. Kino is forced to flee the town with trackers
hot on his trail.

There is a strong morality theme throughout the entire book,
Steinbeck never lets the reader forget that despite the outward promise of
riches and happiness the pearl only brings misery and pain. The futility of
chasing money is spelled out clearly here. The metaphors are as subtle as a
slap in the face with a brick but the message is poignant and ageless. It isn’t
telling us anything new but at the same time a reminder doesn’t hurt.

It is a far cry from some of Steinbeck’s more popular works
and certainly not one of his best but it was an entertaining novella and worth
a read as a Steinbeck fan.

12 comments:

I think you can make a good case for your reading of this book, but that's not how I saw it.

For me, The Pearl is an attack on a societal system that perpetuates the poverty of the lower classes. A good, hardworking man like Kino is unable to escape the system that is stacked against him. He is honest, he is decent, but those around him, particularly those with money above him, are not. Because of this, and because they hold all the power, Kino is unable to escape the desperate poverty he lives in even when his "ship comes in" in the form of The Black Pearl.

I agree with the points you made, the class system is definately at play in the book and there is no doubt that the educated, advantaged people in the book take advantage of Kino who is on the 'bottom rung'

However I think the story is multifaceted with the pearl corrupting those around Kino. 'Power corupts and absolute power corupts absolutely'

You'd be amazed how many people who have read Steinbeck have only read 'Of Mice and Men'. This is particularly true in the UK as many people studied it in school (that was my first exposure to Steinbeck's writing)

Although I love Of Mice and Men and think it is a brilliant story I can't stress enough that Steinbeck wrote many books, some equally good, others better. It is well worth exploring his other works. East of Eden is a good place to start.

I purchased a copy of The Pearl a few months ago. Steinbeck is a favorite, although this particular title never did much for me. I wanted to see if it had improved since high school, but now I seem to be putting it off...

The Pearl is not a favourite of mine but I enjoyed it. It's amazing how our ideas and perceptions change after school. I re-read Of Mice and Men about 12 years after I originally studied it and it still struck cords with me.

I never read The Pearl in school so I might re-read it in 12 years and see what I think then!

I've only read two Steinbeck books (as I think I mentioned when we met!) - Of Mice and Men and this one, and I much preferred this one, actually. I loved the folktale feel to it, and the lyrical quality to the language. Plus it's short, which I always love!

Search This Blog

Subscribe Now: Feed Icon

About Us

We are a married couple and we live in Surrey in the UK. Inbetween working and looking after our very active toddler we both read. We both read very different genres of books so hopefully there is something here for everyone.